Sounders GM fires back at Colorado coach

See what happens when rival Major League Soccer teams play each other twice within a four-day span?

After Colorado Rapids coach Gary Smith lashed out at the Seattle Sounders’ use of Tukwila’s Starfire Complex to play Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup qualifier, Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer replied Thursday by indicating Smith ought to keep his nose where it belongs.

The same two teams played to a 2-2 draw in Colorado on Saturday in a Major League Soccer regular-season game, though mostly reserves were used in the Tuesday rematch.

Hanauer says the 4,000-seat Starfire stadium will be used again if his team wins a bid to host more matches in the U.S. Open Cup tournament, which runs independently of MLS play.

Hanauer said the U.S. Open Cup remains “a little mysterious” to many general sports fans and wouldn’t have drawn sufficient numbers to warrant playing games in Qwest Field, which seats 28,000 for the Sounders’ Major League Soccer matches.

The Sounders have already put in a bid to host their next U.S. Open Cup game in late June, as well as a potential quarterfinal match if they win that contest. Both would almost certainly be played at Starfire, Hanauer said, though the club would consider eventually moving matches to Qwest if the Sounders continue advancing and winning bids to the final rounds of the tournament.

“We think Starfire sort of matches the demand at this point,” Hanauer said. “And I think we’re right, given we were selling standing room tickets right up to game time (on Tuesday).

“I’m sure there are some who believe we’d sell 30,000 tickets for these games,” he said. “I guess I’m not one of them. Believe me, we like to sell tickets and generate revenue as much as any group of sports owners. We’re not doing this because we want to generate less revenue.

“But we want a great environment for the games to be played in. I had participated in enough games at Starfire to know a 3,000-4,000 fan game in that stadium is just an amazing atmosphere. It’s a different feel than Qwest, but I like it.”

Smith criticized the playing surface at Starfire as well as the size of the pitch. Hanauer said Starfire has FieldTurf, just like Qwest Field, though it is an older version. He said Starfire’s field is FIFA-approved at 70-by-110 yards, though slightly smaller than Qwest’s 74-by-114 yard surface.

Hanauer said Starfire stacks up quite nicely against many facilities used for the U.S. Open Cup, a 95-year-old tournament that pits amateur and lower-level pro teams in the same field as MLS qualifiers.

Hanauer’s former Sounders USL team advanced to the Open Cup semifinals last year before losing to the Charleston (S.C.) Battery. He said some early-round games in the past have been played in “cow pastures” compared to Starfire.

“That’s kind of what makes the tournament exciting and interesting,” he said. “You can have David and Goliath stories, some stadiums are great and some are old and rickety and some are long and narrow and some wide and short. Some have long grass, turf, football lines on the field. It runs the gamut.

“I’m sorry if our situation didn’t please Gary to the point where he was happy going home, but our prerogative – with the guidance of US Soccer – is to play where we want.”

In other words, thanks for the advice.

“We’re pretty conscientious and we listen to any comments about what we do in our business,” said Hanauer. “We process it and decide whether there’s legitimacy to it and something we feel we need to act on. That said, I can tell you we absolutely don’t feel compelled to action by his comments, especially those that allude to anything close to how we should run our business.”